


What He Needs

by sillyboyblue



Category: The Hitcher (1986)
Genre: Choices, Injured John, John takes care of Jim, M/M, jim takes care of john
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 14:30:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8848666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillyboyblue/pseuds/sillyboyblue
Summary: John Ryder only wants the best for Jim Halsey. Is what Jim wants what John needs ?





	

"Here we are. This is where I live."

The two men had to be creative to get back to Chicago, Illinois. 

Jim had hitched a ride easily by pretending that he and his father had been in an accident while John was playing dead. John had been so proud of Jim when he had slaughtered the driver to steal his car. The murder had been a little messy but it had only added to the realism of them being in a crash. Jim had waited until they had been out of the state to put the second part of his plan on tracks. He had told John to get out of the car while he picked up a heavy stone, threw it on the gas pedal and let the car crash into a tree. Once the engine had been dead, John had lied down on the ground as if Jim had dragged him out. Jim had dialled 911 on a payphone and they had waited half an hour before the paramedics had arrived and evacuated John on a stretcher. They had spent one day at the hospital. It had turned out that John did not have any life-threatening injury. But when Jim had read the report, he was surprised that John could still stand. They had hitchhiked their way back to Jim's house, without sparing the driver. They had thrown her body in a ditch and left it there. 

And here they were, Jim behind the wheel and John on the passenger seat. His crutches were on the back seat. 

Jim glanced at his old house. The whole family was inside, probably making dinner. From time to time, he caught a glimpse of a silhouette at the window without being able to tell who it belonged to. Would they miss him if he disappeared ?

"You know that if you stay here with me, you can never go back there with them."

Jim realized that he had forgotten their faces. It was not a panic-inducing realization -- he was no more horrified than if he had lost his keys in his own house. It only comforted him in the idea that he had already begun to distance himself from them and that leaving for good would not hurt anyone. He did not even care about his things, none of them mattered. Maybe he would have picked a pair of socks if he had been given the opportunity but there was no need, because John had started doing something he had never done before. He was now taking their victims' wallet for their money to fulfill Jim's needs. He would buy him new clothes. That was even better than taking his old things.

John was in bad shape. He had pretended that he was fine for a few days, but eventually the pain had become unbearable, even for him.

The doctors had told Jim that John's recovery could never be perfect. That his body would never work as well as it used to. Jim tried to live with the thought that it was all his fault. He would make up for it. 

Jim took care of John. He helped him clean himself and get dressed. It was Jim who took off John's neck brace when he went to bed and moved his bad leg when he got up. He always kept the painkillers and the crutches nearby.

John needed him. He knew he had to stay.

"I know."

Jim turned the engine on without giving his house one last look.

"I'm ready."

Those were the only words that John needed to hear.

**Author's Note:**

> Credits to the Dialogue Generator for giving me the first line of this story.


End file.
